711.32/193
The Adviser on Political Relations (Duggan) to the Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery)
Dear Mr. Ambassador: I think that the best reply which I can make to your letter of November 24, 1943,87 regarding the apprehension of certain Brazilian officers as to a possible slackening of our interest in a Brazilian expeditionary force, is by enclosing a copy of an informal memorandum87 prepared for me by Colonel Hertford, on which my telegram no. 4408 of November 29, 11 p.m.,88 in reply to your 5476 of November 25, 4 p.m., was based. I may say for your own information that the equipment for the three Brazilian Expeditionary Force divisions is included in the War Department’s 1944 overseas supplies programs. You will thus see that the War Department is definitely counting on a Brazilian expeditionary force.
It seems to me that it should be easy for the Brazilian Government to overcome the whispering campaign to the effect that we do not want a Brazilian expeditionary force, that we are not going to equip it properly, et cetera.
I understand that the whispering campaign has taken such lines as that the Brazilian troops will not be properly equipped, will be taken over in old Brazilian ships without a convoy, et cetera. All of these rumors are of course completely false. The Brazilian troops are receiving adequate training equipment in the same manner as American troops in the United States. In the case of American troops, most of their equipment goes overseas with them but in freight vessels instead of troop carriers with some new equipment being issued overseas. In the case of the Brazilian troops, they will be even better treated since the training equipment will be all left behind and they will be entirely re-equipped with brand new battle materiel in North Africa. They will be transported abroad in the same sort of troop carriers as American troops and under the same security conditions. The point which should be stressed to the Brazilians is that their troops will be given exactly the same status as our own troops.
Reports have come to us from several sources indicating that there is some disagreement within the Brazilian Army itself as to the advisability of sending an expeditionary force and that certain factions within it want to get the maximum possible amount of Lend-Lease material in Brazil and hold it and the troops there, being [Page 652] influenced perhaps by the fear of possible Argentine aggression. I wonder whether some of the completely unjustified Brazilian complaints are not founded on this situation and internal troubles in the Brazilian Army itself.…
Yours very sincerely,
P.S.: Today brings the announcement from Algiers of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force and the request of the DIP92 that this announcement not be carried over Portuguese language broadcasts beamed on Brazil. What’s up?